


transmutation

by AslansCompass



Category: Sapphire and Steel, Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-11-17 13:02:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18099023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AslansCompass/pseuds/AslansCompass
Summary: "Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. "  Sapphire and Steel rescue a Transuranic from a trap and discover a complication they hadn't expected.





	1. Chapter 1

I always said the transuranics were unstable. Assigning one to earth was a mistake. 

It wasn't an assignment, Steel, it was a trap. 

Americium should have known better. 

How could she tell? Besides, that's not the point. We have to rescue her before her presence causes irreparable damage to the environment. 

I still can't believe she was trapped. Humans shouldn't know how to do that sort of thing.

We were trapped once. Sapphire reminded her partner.

But not by _humans._

Come now, let's focus on the task at hand. Sapphire set her hand on the pedestal. This is the key. If I take it back--

Do it.

The world shimmered for a moment, leaving behind two figures on the ground. 

Two? Steel knelt over one of the figures.  Americium? 

Sapphire shook her head. She's been destroyed. She lightly touched the other person. A human, but with a strange energy trace...."She's alive." 


	2. Chapter 2

That's not possible! Anything that would destroy an Element--

I know. Sapphire bent over to touch the woman's cheek. It's almost as if--oh! She grabbed Steel's hand to steady herself. She rings of Time.

A ghost? An incursion?

Sapphire settled on the floor. No, I don't think so. She took the woman's hand in her own.  There isn't that much difference between psychometry and telepathy, most of the time. Some impressions are stronger than others, but it generally takes the form of facts or images. 

Not this time. Images spin and twist, forming a chaotic montage. 

> A thirteenth-century castle besieged by peasants with anachronistic rifles.
> 
> Glistening silver figures on a space station.
> 
> A book with red and white chapters.
> 
> A shimmering gateway into her personal past.
> 
> Planets in the sky, summoned at the will of a monster.

**Sapphire!**

I'm here, Steel. She's a time traveler. But it's not hostile. There's another power involved, a higher technology. The residue must have protected her somehow. 

But--

"It's rude to talk about someone behind their back. Even if that's not exactly the right term."

Sapphire opened her eyes. The woman hasn't moved, but the words are briskly spoken.

"No, I'm not telepathic. But I'm familiar enough to tell when someone's using it." 

"I didn't mean to be rude. I'm Sapphire and this is my colleague, Steel." 

"Sarah Jane Smith. Do you have any water? I'm terribly thirsty." 

 


	3. Chapter 3

Sarah Jane stepped out of the car at 13 Bannerman Road. "Thanks for the ride," she told the driver. 

As the car pulled away, Luke and Sky ran out the front door.

"Mum! Thank goodness!!"  Sky hugged Sarah Jane. "It's been a week! Where were you?"

"I told you she'd be okay,"  Luke pointed out.

"Oye, get in here," Sarah Jane called. 

"Mum..."

"Hug. Now." 

Luke rolled his eyes and joined in. "Kate's had everyone out looking for you."

"Really?"

"Well, it wasn't like we had anything else to do." Kate said as she stepped outside.  "It's good to see you again, Sarah. Osgood's run down to the shops for some tea and biscuits; I'm rather afraid we ate you out of house and home."

"Just the three of you, then?"

"Two, actually. Osgood's covering for me in case I need an alibi."  

* * *

"...so, these people who rescued you? What do you make of them?"

"People.. or 'people?'"  Osgood made finger quotes.

"Not human, exactly." Sarah Jane sipped her tea.  "Time sensitive, both of them. And telepathic. "

"Any chance they could be Time Lords?"

"I doubt it. They seemed as curious about me as I was about them. You spend as much time with the Doctor as I do, you get to know what his people are like.  Oh, they were certainly haughty enough, but at the same time..." Sarah Jane shrugged.  "The one trapped with me said loads of things I couldn't understand, but definitely saw Time as the enemy. "

"We'll see if Mr. Smith can get any residual readings," Luke offered.  "Maybe he'll know something we don't."

"And I'll put some feelers out," Kate agreed. "The names do ring a bell. Can't remember if it was Liz or Jo, but I do think we've had off-books encounters before." 

 


	4. Chapter 4

Elements aren't born. Neither do they die, at least not in the human sense. But they can be destroyed. 

Americium's form was inherently unstable.  Without her living spirit, it barely held together long enough for Sapphire and Steel to return to base.  Lead gathered the remains and stored them on an empty world. 

By the time Lead returned, the wake was in process. Though most Elements discarded their mortal forms between assignments, some occasions were simpler in defined bodies.

Memorials, like commencements, called for corporal reality. 

Lead took a tray of drinks from the buffet line and brought it over to a side table where Sapphire, Steel, and Silver were sitting.  "So, you two, good to see you again."

"Meaning, I suppose, that you'd rather ignore me altogether," Silver said dryly.

"No, nothing like that." Lead offered Silver a glass.  "Now, there's been some scuttlebutt about interference with the mission."

"Not interference, per say. But there was something different about it."

"Oh, do tell," Silver encouraged. 

"Really, Sapphire, do you think it's a good idea?"

"You say that as if we _could_ keep secrets," Sapphire teased her partner.

"Not secrets. I just don't see how it's anyone else's business."

"You can't blame us for being curious. Come on, it might be interesting."  They all had the relevant details of Americium's demise, of course, as well as full understanding of the trap, but in one sense, at least,  Elements share one trait with the human beings they protect: they love stories.

"Americium wasn't the only being caught in the trap. A human was there too."

"A human?"

"With a transuranic?"

"I detected no such anomalies in the remains," Lead remarked.  He may not have Sapphire's psychometry or Carbon's skills in detecting life, but he would have seen physical evidence, at least, if mortal flesh was involved.

"She lived," Steel stated.

"Inconceivable," Lead frowned. "The transuranics are too unstable for human contact."

"Well, she wasn't. At least, not entirely." Sapphire paused. "By most readings, she was simply an average human. Born May 6, 1950 to Barbara née Wilson and Eddie Smith in Foxgrove, Hertfordshire.  But when I tried to read her--oh, I couldn't make heads or tails of it. Mad, impossible sights from the past and the future.  Her whole life was wrapped in time energy."

"No, she wasn't a trigger. Or, rather, she had been in contact with temporal anomalies, likely causing some herself, but it wasn't malicious.  I could sense some closed loops, a solved predestination paradox, and a few soft places, but nothing that would normally require our involvement." 

"What manner of temporal energy?" Silver asked.

"I don't know, Silver, it's not my area." 

"What about her name? Did you get her name?"

"Yes, I was able to read that much. Sarah Jane Smith."

Silver sighed and leaned back. "Oh."

"Did she sound familiar?" Steel asked.

"No, I just thought... Doesn't matter, anyway. Anything else usual?"

"She knew when Steel and I were speaking."

"Really?" Now it was Lead's turn to be surprised.  "Exposure to temporal fissures can cause similar effects; but wait, you said she knew _when_ you were speaking. Could she actually hear you?"

"Said she'd been around enough telepaths to tell, that's all. Which might warrant further investigation, come to think of it." Steel frowned. "If someone else has been mucking about in our dimensions, I'd like to know who we're dealing with."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently, Liz Shaw/Silver is a popular crossover ship in the fandot. Thought I'd give it a shoutout here.
> 
> Carbon, (of the life-detecting skills), is my original Element character. Eventually he'll show up elsewhere, but you heard of him here first!

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Americium is a real element. Number 95, it was originally discovered in 1944 by scientists working on the Manhattan Project.


End file.
